---
title: "Scientists Plan to Clone Extinct Horse Using 42,000-Year-Old Blood"
description: "Siberian scientists conducted an autopsy of a 42,000-year-old foal of an extinct horse, and found that it's so well-preserved they may be able to clone it."
date: "2019-04-16"
modified: "2019-04-16"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-clone-extinct-horse-42000-year-old-blood"
categories:
  - "Biology"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "biology"
  - "cloning"
  - "the digest"
---

# Scientists Plan to Clone Extinct Horse Using 42,000-Year-Old Blood

![Siberian scientists conducted an autopsy of a 42,000-year-old foal of an extinct horse, and found that it's so well-preserved they may be able to clone it.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/scientists-clone-extinct-horse-42000-year-old-blood.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Semyon Grigoryev/NEFU\</em\>*

## Welcome Back

Last year, scientists found a 42,000-year-old Lena Horse foal — those are extinct, by the way — frozen in Siberian permafrost.

Now, they hope that they can clone the long-dead horse back into existence, [according to *Gizmodo*](<https://gizmodo.com/liquid-blood-extracted-from-42-000-year-old-foal-found-1834080332>), using liquid blood samples researchers extracted from the horse's surprisingly well-preserved heart.

## Horse to Water

In addition to liquid blood, scientists conducting the autopsy found intact organs and tissues.

"We can now claim that this is the best-preserved Ice Age animal ever found in the world," Semyon Grigoyev, head of the Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk, Russia, told Russian news agency TASS, as per [*The Siberian Times*](<https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/unique-in-palaeontology-liquid-blood-found-inside-a-prehistoric-42000-year-old-foal/>).

The one to two-week-old foal likely drowned in mud that then froze, keeping the horse on ice for thousands of years.

## Horsin' Around

Collecting liquid blood doesn't mean that scientists can definitely clone a Lena Horse back into the world — the researchers will still need to make sure that the blood contains viable cells that can then be grown in a lab.

*Gizmodo* reports that the researchers behind the project, who are also working to [resurrect woolly mammoths](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-cloning-woolly-mammoth.md>), have tried and failed to grow such cells 20 different times.

**READ MORE:** [Liquid Blood Extracted From 42,000-Year-Old Foal Found Frozen in Siberia](<https://gizmodo.com/liquid-blood-extracted-from-42-000-year-old-foal-found-1834080332>) \[*Gizmodo*\]

**More on cloning:** *[Scientists Just Came Closer Than Ever to Cloning a Woolly Mammoth](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-cloning-woolly-mammoth.md>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)

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